Xbox Live's "Deals of the Week" can be hit or miss. Next week is a big hit for fans of old school first person shooters. The Serious Sam franchise isn't fancy, but it gets the job done. This is a meat and potatoes shooter for those of us who enjoy our meat bloody and our potatoes mashed. Wait, that doesn't sound right...

Amazon has a serious deal for Serious Sam fans with the Serious Sam Serious bundle.  Seriously.

Man, there's been a lot of Serious Sam news lately. First there was story about Serious Sam 3: BFE and Serious Sam: Double D XXL coming to the XBLA this fall. Then Amazon announced a big sale on Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter and its new accompanying DLC. Not to be outdone, Steam is having their own Serious Sam sale.

Amazon is once again holding a sale on downloadable titles for the PC, offering some truly killer deals on games including some popular co-op titles.   The Serious Sam series seems to be the centerpiece with Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, and Serious Sam 3: BFE all available for 75% off.   Co-Op friendly 4 packs of the HD remakes are available for $10 and $15 for the first and second respectively, while SS3 is available in a 4 pack for $30.

Croteam have announced that PC version of Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is getting new DLC on May 15th called "Legend of the Beast."   The pack of content contains something for everyone including single player, multiplayer and co-op.  In it, Sam has to defeat the ram-god of The Great Obelisk in an all-new chapter of the campaign.  Also included are:

As you surely known by now, there’s a massive Xbox Live Arcade game sale going on this week that’s open to all Xbox Live members, even the less fortunate ones who only have Silver accounts. The rumors of a one-day only sale have proven true as well (High five, Samoza!), with four XBLA titles receiving extra special discounts today (Friday, September 30). Only one of those games supports co-op, but it’s worth a look: Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is 66% off the regular price.

This week's Xbox Live Deals focus on "Retro Shooters" - with many of them offering co-op play.  Here's what you can snag for at least 50% off the normal Microsoft Moon Buck price.

Though Sam Stone isn't one to sneak, he managed to find his way onto Xbox Live Arcade this week despite no prior announcement of the game's launch.  It's OK, he doesn't need the hype,fans of the serious know he's one co-op friendly cat.  Our review of the PC version agrees.  Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is out for 1200  and can be added to your download queue here.  The game sports four player online co-op through the campaign and in a survival mode.

Right now you can download and play the full version of Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter from Steam for free.  The promotion runs until 1PM Pacific tomorrow, that's July 11th.  During that time you can purchase the full version of the game for 50% off, $10.  

I don't know about you guys, but the beginning of the summer is always full of "I've been meaning to do this, let's get it done!" and left very little time for gaming. So, instead of my general impressions on a downloadable title, let us now take a look at the lineup for this summer.

Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter continues the story of Sam's adventures through time, and is a remade version of the original title in the Serious Engine 3. Devlolver Digital have gone and added a handful of new co-op modes as well as online versus modes to the package. So how does it play?

This weeks On The Download will feature plenty of brand new downloadable co-op news, including some hot topics like Halo Reach's Beta, loads of new releases and even a rumor. We're also going to revisit the world of Aces of the Galaxy - one of my favorite recent co-op purchases on the XBLA.

Devolver Digital and Croteam have announced that Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is out now on the PC and available to download via Steam.  

We rather enjoyed the first HD remake of Serious Sam.  While it offered little more than prettier graphics, the 16 player co-op on PC and 4 player co-op on XBLA made the game a total mindless blast.  So we're happy to report that Croteam, Devolver Digital and Majesco are all involved with bringing out a remake of Serious Sam The Second Encounter to both PC and XBLA.  

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is still steaming...and the Xbox Live Arcade version isn't even released yet - but Croteam has officially announced Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is coming to PCs and 360s next year.